I kind of agree with apple on this. If he wanted his wife etc to have access then he would have given her the password. What happens if there is something on that device that he never wanted her to ever see. Now that he has gone he can not explain anything that might be on that device.

I'm in the same boat. As far as I'm concerned my phone and it's data is mine. If I want someone else to have access, then I'll give it to them. I have numerous back ups online, but they're still mine. I say this to people I know when I suggest a full reset of a device and they reply, oh I can't, I have stuff on there. What if you drop it in the loo, or lose it? All that data is gone.

I worked for a bank awhile back and it was similar, we'd have couples come in, and mainly with older couples, only the male was the account holder. The wife would come in to do something and you'd have to explain, this is not your account, we can't do anything. It's just one of those things people don't like to discuss, but it makes it extremely awkward should something happen to the account holder.

I didn't see the show, but if she's got his laptop then it's over in 5 minutes.

iforgot.apple.com will get a new iCloud password happening, delivered to his email. Use that to access the photos on iCloud.com. The phone is still going to have a screen lock on it, so she'll have to DFU reset that & reinstall iOS via iTunes but when the activation page comes up, she's got his new iCloud password to enter. The phone will then restore from iCloud backup.

Rikitic: I haven't watched the video but your comment strikes me as extremely ignorant and one-sided. There's a reason why Apple (and I am hardly fond of their lack of CSR generally) would request an order proving probate: it serves as an order from the court that a person's last will has been "proved" and that there are valid executors of a will to execute the testator's intentions. Just because a man who happens to be married is dead, it doesn't automatically mean that legally his wife gets to do as she pleases with his property.

This sounds like a silly beat up to me.

I've found fairgo to be on the wrong side of a number of arguments in the last 2 or 3 years.

Perhaps the issue should be the cost of the probate, I've no idea of the amount though.

I kind of agree with apple on this. If he wanted his wife etc to have access then he would have given her the password. What happens if there is something on that device that he never wanted her to ever see. Now that he has gone he can not explain anything that might be on that device.

I don't think you can conclude that the husband didn't want the wife to have access.

The husband just may not have expected to die or become incapacitated, or, he didn't know apples policies, or, he just didn't think about it. Any of these could be possible.

I kind of agree with apple on this. If he wanted his wife etc to have access then he would have given her the password. What happens if there is something on that device that he never wanted her to ever see. Now that he has gone he can not explain anything that might be on that device.

I don't think you can conclude that the husband didn't want the wife to have access.

The husband just may not have expected to die or become incapacitated, or, he didn't know apples policies, or, he just didn't think about it. Any of these could be possible.

You maybe right, given that he/they were fighting cancer and dealing with all the medications, stress and emotions it is not inconceivable that the Apple password was low down on the list of priorities or even thought of.

MikeRetired IT Manager. The views stated in my posts are my personal views and not that of any other organisation.

Maybe to you. Not necessarily to a non-technical person dying of cancer. Not everyone thinks of these things. Maybe there should be better procedures for dealing with these kinds of exceptional situations. Why victimise the poor woman because her husband didn't dot all his i's in time? These things happen. That is what people are like.

Both my husband and I use Google Photos as a free backup to our iPhone photos, as well as the icloud service.

Under Google photos my library is shared with him, sure he could look through it now if he wanted to but in the morbid event of my death and possible iPhone demise hopefully the kids are left with the memories.

Maybe to you. Not necessarily to a non-technical person dying of cancer. Not everyone thinks of these things. Maybe there should be better procedures for dealing with these kinds of exceptional situations. Why victimise the poor woman because her husband didn't dot all his i's in time? These things happen. That is what people are like.

Any procedures that they create/simplify will just weaken the security for everyone though. What if someone faked a death certificate for me (or a probate letter) and sent it to Apple HQ and got access to my iCloud Photo Library? Or my iCloud Keychain (which has every password of mine)?

Or if they gave the "power to unlock" to their phone support team, it would only take one disgruntled (or easily persuaded) CSR to say "Ok I'm sick of arguing, here's his/her password".

IANAL. This is possibly something that the government needs to look at this sort of with data protection and data privacy laws, as the data is stored and controlled by a private company. When a bank gives you an eftpos card, and you put a pin on it, you are told not to share that pin with anyone otherwise it could mean that you will not be covered for losses should anyone access your account. That includes your spouse. That mentality means that people also don't tend to share passwords either. ALthough I don't watch fair go these days, the issue I see is the ownership of the photos / data, and probate would show that that noone else owns them, or is claiming to own them, so I can see Apples point of view here. But it is quite a high cost to pay. Do companies like facebook require people to provide a probate document before they will close or deactivate a personal facebook account, or give someone else access to it?

Maybe to you. Not necessarily to a non-technical person dying of cancer. Not everyone thinks of these things. Maybe there should be better procedures for dealing with these kinds of exceptional situations. Why victimise the poor woman because her husband didn't dot all his i's in time? These things happen. That is what people are like.

Any procedures that they create/simplify will just weaken the security for everyone though. What if someone faked a death certificate for me (or a probate letter) and sent it to Apple HQ and got access to my iCloud Photo Library? Or my iCloud Keychain (which has every password of mine)?

Or if they gave the "power to unlock" to their phone support team, it would only take one disgruntled (or easily persuaded) CSR to say "Ok I'm sick of arguing, here's his/her password".

This is why private companies should be using systems like NZs Real Me to authenticate people. I remember how difficult it was to get a phoneline turned off for someone who died.